Elite XC's Unfinished Business -- good card but smaller audience
The reports are in and EliteXC’s "Unfinished Business" show Saturday night did not fare as well as the first time around. A slight ratings drop was to be expected as CBS no longer had the intrigue involved with the debut of the sport on network TV. Also missing in action were the two biggest stars in the EliteXC, Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano.
It was a fairly decent show, actually. Adam Morgan from FiveOucnesofPain.com has a good writeup on the nitty/gritty from the show, which included some enjoyable bouts. Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith played out pretty much how I anticipated it. Cris Cyborg looked impressive and Jake Shields also had a strong showing. The problem was drawing an audience.
MMA Payout has more on the numbers and what they mean, but it looks like the show will garner close to a 2.0 rating. That means the ratings were down almost 40% from the first show. The next big card on CBS will be in October and will feature Slice and Carano again, but if the ratings don’t improve considerably, that may signal the end of EliteXC and CBS. This makes it all that much more important to keep up the facade of Kimbo Slice, when it’s revealed how important he is to developing an audience. They need Slice to keep dropping mediocre competition because one loss will shatter the allure around him.
If you managed to catch it, what did you think of Unfinished Business?
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Comments
I thought it was a decent card but where are the Elite XC fighters that have been featured in the past. KJ Noons is a good fighter and Cung Le is electric when he is in the ring. Any idea where those guys are and why they haven't been given a network push?
Posted by: joe | July 28, 2008 4:48 PM
I thought it was a much better 2nd card on cbs. Too bad no one showed up to watch it. They made Cyborg a star heel that will match up nicely for Carano to demolish. Now the big question is do they roll the dice and wait on that matchup or do they throw her in with Carano tfor the October card.
Posted by: Marc | July 28, 2008 5:53 PM
Le has been on StrikeforceOnNBC, Noons w/another promotion whose name escapes me.
A lot of competing organizations. Each has some high end guys & some not very good guys. UFC/WEC is still king of the hill from talent, but no big network deal.
Kimbo Slice would get killed by the top 5-10 guys in UFC weight class. No ground skills at all.
Posted by: Ben Dover | July 28, 2008 7:47 PM
You'd expect the ratings to slip in mid-summer, particularly for the demographic (males 18-34). I am just too impressed with the UFC because the overall competition in these other leagues is a tier down. Cung Le is great but the UFC fighters are just such great athletes.
Posted by: als | July 28, 2008 8:03 PM